This is Xena at the back door with her flat ball. If I throw it off the deck, she'll retreive it, but she only brings it back if I go back into the house, stay away from the back door and pretend not to be paying attention to her.

Filling my quota of cute dog photos.

A couple of months ago, I got my dream camera, a Canon Digital Rebel XT dSLR. Unfortunately, I haven't had (or made) the opportunity to take that many photos with it yet. Last Saturday, we had a birthday party for Samuel and his friend Collin. I'm not usually very good about taking photos at family events, because I don't want to miss the action, but I made a concerted effort at the party.

The party took place inside the clubhouse and in and around the pool. The clubhouse was lit by several windows and a couple of overhead lights. At first, I tried some flashless shots, but most were blurry. So, I tried a few with flash. Not impressive. Finally, it dawned on me to increase my ISO from 100 to 400. After that, I got some nice inside shots with no flash. Outside, I primarily used fill flash to counteract the strong sunshine.

I didn't get any outstanding shots, but here are some of the photos I'm happiest with:

This one is blurry, but it turned out to be a nice effect given the subject:

Xena and Penny lying together under the desk

A detail from the balcony of my room at the Valencia Hotel in San Jose.

Well, after lusting for one for a very long time, I bought myself a dSLR camera this past week. Here are some of my first photos. Nothing spectacular yet:

Our dogs lead good lives:

I pass by this apartment complex every day on my way to work. I'm not sure why the management thinks this is an amenity:

If I give a piece of rawhide to each dog, Xena eats hers then steals the others. She eats all but the last one, which she then carries around for a day or two before eating it. Flaunting her booty, I guess, to Tippie and Penny.

Samuel's new puppy Penny has made herself right at home with us

Relaxing on the couch with Xena:

Sleeping on my neck:

Samuel and Penny watching the fire in the fireplace:

Autumn is finally coming to Austin, so this morning I stopped at Red Bud Isle to capture some autumn goodness:

I'll have to return in a week or two when more leaves have begun to turn.

Gratuitous dog photo time again. This is Katie's aunt's dachshund, Maddie:

Taken March 25 in the greenbelt behind our house:

A female cardinal eating from the feeder on our deck this past weekend:

Peach blossoms, taken in our back yard yesterday:

This is Sophia, a six-week-old Lhasa Apso that we took care of for a few days last week:

Historic Immanuel Lutheran Church in Pflugerville as the sun is about to set:

Detail from the arena where Hannah Beth takes riding lessons.

I took this photo at sunset while Hannah was taking her riding lesson the other day. I wanted, but was not able, to get in a position where I could photograph the horses without the fences in the foreground, but now I'm thinking that the foreground fences and flora add some nice depth:

Our Golden Retriever Xena has enough retriever instincts that she carries objects--balls, small stuffed animals--around in her mouth frequently, but not enough to reliably play fetch. When I manage to get ahold of her flat ball and throw it off the deck into the yard, she runs after it and picks it up, but she doesn't want to give it back. If I come near her when she has the ball, she runs the other way, because she doesn't want me to take it from her. Oh well; she's cute.

Captured on my way home from work yesterday: proud resident of Pflugerville?

I shot this photo of UT's Frank Erwin Center (aka 'the drum') out the window of my car as I passed by on I-35 yesterday evening. Despite the moving vehicle and my keeping some attention on my driving, I somehow managed to keep the camera fairly still relative to the Erwin Center. The blur in front of it is a passing 18-wheeler in the southbound lanes of I-35. (The Erwin Center was lighted UT burnt orange, by the way)

Yesterday evening, Hannah took this photo of me pushing Samuel on the tree swing behind our house. I thought it was interesting.

The photo below is the product of a not very successful experiment. On my way home from work the other day, the sky got really dark with thunderstorm clouds. I thought this church would look really cool against those clouds, so I stopped and took a few shots. After I uploaded the images, I wasn't so impressed. So instead of making the pic as realistic as possible, I decided to try to manipulate the image into something more interesting. I flattened it and reduced to grey scale. The result is more interesting than the original, but still not terribly good.

When I got home from my run this morning (6:15 ish), this little guy was in our back yard.

I snapped this photo on my drive home today (while driving at 65 MPH!). Notice that the dog is wearing his Doggles™

I took this shot off the deck this morning. The first fall cool front came through, and it was pleasantly less warm this morning (I wouldn't yet characterize the temps as 'cool'). The kids, dogs and I enjoyed the change in weather by playing in the backyard and on the greenbelt before school, and I didn't get very sweaty on our walk to Hannah's school.

UPDATE: I uploaded a desktop-sized copy of the sunrise image. You're welcome to download and use it.

I finally captured a (not very good) photo of the lizard who sleeps outside our bathroom window

This is the old windmill on the greenbelt behind our house. I've been waiting for the right conditions to take a sunrise or sunset photo of it. This morning I was awake and dressed at sunrise, and a cold front blew through yesterday which cleared the skies of their usual summer haze.

The young swallows that have been raised above our front door this summer waiting for their mommy's return.

I shot this photo of the Loop 360 bridge over Lake Austin this afternoon while stuck in traffic. The traffic was actually moving slowly, so I didn't really have much time to compose. I just put the camera on auto, pointed it up through the windshield and shot. It came out much better than I expected. Turns out, the sky was a brighter blue than usual for July due to a 'cold' front that had blown through.

The bridge's name is Pennybacker Bridge (thanks, Google), but nobody calls it that. Due to its striking architecture, it doesn't need much to be identifiable.

I took this photo of Katie's mother while we were on vacation in New Mexico. We were sitting at a restaurant and the service was taking forever, so I was passing the time by playing with my camera and my small tripod. I set the tripod on the table top and pointed it at Kathy.

Mawmaw is frowning for several reasons: 1.) she's really hungry and our food hasn't come; 2.) the kids are really hungry, our food hasn't come and therefore they're acting badly, and 3.) she didn't really want me to take the photo.

I didn't include the photo in our vacation slideshow because Mawmaw thought it was an awful photo of her. However, I think it's a great photo. Good lighting, and a very expressive face. I think of her wonderfully colorful character when I look at it (I mean that positively; I really do). So, I'm posting it in my blog instead.

I've been refreshing my photography skills. Here are some recent examples: